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8.22.2016

Microsoft Open Sources PowerShell

Multi-platform, multi-cloud, multi-OS

Last week, Microsoft open sourced its administration tool, PowerShell. The source code is already available on GitHub, and PowerShell is now available on Linux. This follows Microsoft’s recent “Microsoft loves Linux” claims.

Microsoft has said they will release PowerShell for Red Hat, CentOS and Ubuntu distributions of Linux, as well as OS X. Jeffrey Snover, Lead Architect of Microsoft’s Enterprise Cloud group wrote in a blog post, “Microsoft wants to earn customers' preference as the platform for running all their workloads - Linux as well as Windows.” With almost a third of Azure virtual machines running Linux, and the recent addition of Bash to Windows 10, Windows is fully embracing the “multi-platform, multi-cloud, multi-OS" world.”

"With almost a third of Azure virtual machines running Linux, and the recent addition of Bash to Windows 10, Windows is fully embracing the “multi-platform, multi-cloud, multi-OS" world.”

This is great for system administrators everywhere. Windows administrators will be able to move their skills to Linux systems, while Linux administrators will be able to add a new tool to their kit. Microsoft also promises to add remote administration for Linux systems, which is great for the growing number of Enterprise Linux deployments.

I’m glad that Windows is making strides with the open-source community, but that comes with a few problems. There have been a few malwares using Windows PowerShell infect Windows PCs recently, and I can imagine more malicious research being done now that Linux is an official platform. There are also some concerns that the recent addition of Bash to Windows has expanded the attack surface of many systems.

It will be interesting to see whether PowerShell can find a place in Linux.